Ere sorrow had sullied the fountain below, Or darkness enveloped the form; Fill to that life-tide! oh warm was its rushing Through Adens of arrowy light, And yet like the wave in the wilderness gushing, "T will gladden the wine-cup to-night. Fill to the past! from its dim distant sphere Wild voices in melody come; The strains of the by-gone, deep echoing here, And like the bright orb, that in sinking flings back May the dreams of the past, on futurity track PASSING AWAY-A DREAM. BY J. PIER PONT. WAS it the chime of a tiny bell, That came so sweet to my dreaming ear,Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell That he winds on the beach, so mellow and clear, When the winds and the waves lie together asleep, And the Moon and the Fairy are watching the deep, She dispensing her silvery light, And he, his notes as silvery quite, While the boatman listens and ships his oar, To catch the music that comes from the shore? Are set to words:-as they float, they say, "Passing away! passing away!" But no; it was not a fairy's shell, Blown on the beach, so mellow and clear; Striking the hour, that filled my ear, And she held to her bosom a budding bouquet, 66 O, how bright were the wheels, that told Of the lapse of time as they moved round slow! And the hands, as they swept o'er the dial of gold, Seemed to point to the girl below. And lo! she had changed :—in a few short hours "Passing away! passing away!" PASSING AWAY. 223 While I gazed at that fair one's cheek, a shade And the light in her eye, and the light on the wheels, While yet I looked, what a change there came! The garland beneath her had fallen to dust; Grew crooked and tarnished, but on they kept, From the shrivelled lips of the toothless crone,(Let me never forget till my dying day The tone or the burden of her lay,-) 66 Passing away! passing away! |